My presentation at the 2015 inaugural Science Teacher Conference by The Society for Science and the Public, October 16-18, Washington DC

1. BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO
GETTING PUBLIC DATA
INTO THE CLASSROOM
PRESENTED OCTOBER 17, 2015
SOCIETY FOR SCIENCE AND THE PUBLIC TEACHER CONFERENCE
WASHINGTON DC
Shawn Handran, Ph.D.

2. About me
 10 years in academic research
 Montana State BS, Washington Univ. in St. Louis PhD,
Harvard Medical School post-doc
 7 years in biotechnology
 Genomics, bioinformatics, HT screening & imaging
 4 years in Non-Profit sector
 Foundation/fundraising database research
 4th year of teaching at FCS
 AP Biology, AP Statistics, Biotechnology

3. Getting public data into the classroom
 Stimulate intrinsic interest
 Keep barriers to entry low
 Get to a good comfort level
 Gradual release
% of content

4. Getting Public Data into the Classroom
STEP 1:
STIMULATE
INTRINSIC INTEREST

5. Stimulate intrinsic interest
 Teachers often mandate the parameters
 Too much control stifles creativity
 Give students ownership
 Ownership drives interest level and engagement
 Provide guidance
 Yes, some parameters are still required!

6. Some recurring themes
 Music
 Sports
 Whatever example you just showed in class

7. Getting Public Data into the Classroom
STEP 2:
KEEP BARRIERS TO
ENTRY LOW

8. Keep barriers to entry low
 Datasets
 Ease of access
 Dataset format
 Data analysis
 Cost
 Ease of use

9. Dataset barriers to entry
 Ease of access
 HTML tables
 Downloadable files
 Copy and paste
 Query database/forms
 PDF
Difficulty

10. Dataset barriers to entry
 Dataset format
 HTML  use Import HTML Table function
 Text format (csv, tab) or Excel (xls, xlsx)
 Query forms
 Simple database files (e.g., Access)
 Complex database files
Difficulty

11. Keep Barriers to Entry Low
TUTORIAL 1:
IMPORT HTML TABLE
INTO GOOGLE SHEETS

12. MLB 2014 AL team summary stats
 Baseball-Reference.com
 http://goo.gl/5RU0Gt

15. Import HTML Table template
 Google Sheets
 https://goo.gl/PTv7vl

16. Import HTML Table

17. Import HTML Table

18. Two functions of data analysis
 Data handling
 Data visualization
 Most programs do both but some not well
 You’ll often use multiple programs

19. Data analysis: cost vs. ease of use
R Stata SAS
OpenOffice StatCrunch
GoogleSheets Numbers
Gapminder
JMP
Excel
Publisher
Minitab
Fathom*
Free $$$
HardEasy
Tableau Public
SPSS
Illustrator
Tableau
*discontinued

20. Spreadsheet/graphing programs
 Advantages
 Free or close to free (except Excel)
 Good selection of canned graphs
 Disadvantages
 Challenging for students to learn
 Requires a lot of wizard-level hacking/tweaking
 Winners: Google Sheets, MS Excel

21. Statistical programs
 Advantages
 Handles large datasets faster and better than Excel
 Designed for statistical analysis
 Handles variables seamlessly
 More graph options and better graph editing tools than Excel
 About the same learning curve as Excel for simple functions
 Disadvantages
 Moderate to high cost, even with academic pricing
 More sophisticated graphs or analyses require mad skills
 Poor graphic export options
 Winners: JMP, Minitab

22. Minitab
StatCrunch
Dataset size: 286K

23. Graphic design programs
 Advantages
 Perfect control over every graphic element
 Final output looks stunning and is scalable
 Disadvantages
 Zero data handling and analysis capability
 Huge learning curve
 Expensive
 Winner: Adobe Illustrator
 Runner up: Microsoft Publisher (poor man’s Illustrator)

24. Tableau Public
 Advantages
 Free including 10GB online storage
 Handles humongous datasets
 Interactive with mouse-over information
 Easy to use for simple datasets and graphs
 Disadvantages
 Everything you create is public
 Data handling is limited and removing variables
can be tedious (but not always)

25. Keep Barriers to Entry Low
TUTORIAL 2:
TABLEAU PUBLIC

26. Tableau Public
 Sign up and download desktop/mobile app
https://public.tableau.com/s/
 Upload a data file
 Start tinkering!

28. WHO Mortality by Cause & Age
 World Health Organization
 https://goo.gl/pYTHS4

29. Dataset size: 5.5K

30. Getting Public Data into the Classroom
STEP 3:
GET TO A GOOD
COMFORT LEVEL

31. Get to a good comfort level
 Getting started: Survey of public datasets
 Getting help: Learn from data experts
 Getting acquainted: Make new friends
Disclaimer: these lists are by no means exhaustive!

32. Getting started: public datasets
 Data.gov (186,000+ data sets)
http://www.data.gov/
 Big Machine Learning (BigML) blog post
http://blog.bigml.com/list-of-public-data-
sources-fit-for-machine-learning/

33. Getting started: public datasets
 Gapminder Offline software (free)
http://www.gapminder.org/downloads/
 Pre-loaded data!
 Cake walk easy to use!
 Dynamic and awesome looking!

34. Getting started: public datasets
 HTML tables
 http://www.baseball-reference.com/
 http://www.billboard.com/archive/charts
 http://apps.who.int/gho/data/?theme=home

35. Getting started: public datasets
 Download files (text, Excel)
 http://www.seanlahman.com/baseball-
archive/statistics
 http://www.gapminder.org/data/
 https://data.cdc.gov/browse

36. Getting started: public datasets
 Copy and Paste
https://gssdataexplorer.norc.org/ (easy)
http://espn.go.com/mlb/statistics (tedious)

37. Getting help: Learn from data experts
 David McCandliss http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/
 Andy Kirk http://www.visualisingdata.com/blog/
 Hans Rosling http://www.gapminder.org/videos/
 Edward Tufte http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/

38. Getting acquainted: make friends
 Here at this conference
 On social media networks
 You’ll have better luck on LinkedIn and G+
 Don’t be afraid to reach out

39. Getting Public Data into the Classroom
STEP 4:
GRADUAL RELEASE

40. Gradual release
 Model
 Don’t just show it—demo it live
 Encourage
 Preferably in-class computer time/activities
 Release and nudge
 More nudginghigher quality of final product

41. Student Project: Billboard Top100
 Student level: 12 (AP Statistics)
 International student
 Public sources:
 Billboard Top 100, Radio, Digital 2014
http://www.billboard.com/archive/charts/2014
 Moderate amount of nudging
 Mostly for language and cultural help

43. Student Project: MLB Hitting Stats
 Student level: 12 (AP Statistics)
 Local student
 Public source:
 http://espn.go.com/mlb/statistics
 Low amount of nudging
 Student had an excellent grasp on statistical
analysis

44. Less nudging, less complexity
0.000
0.050
0.100
0.150
0.200
0.250
0.300
0.350
0.400
Batting Average On Base Percentage
Home
Away
Away
Home
0.480.450.420.390.360.330.300.270.240.21
Data
Home vs. Away On Base Percentage
MLB 2013 Home vs. Away Statistics
Dataset size: 808

45. Tableau possibilities…
 I recreated the same
dataset in ~2 hours of work
on Tableau Public and
visualized 11K data points
 https://goo.gl/ffreyb

46. Dataset size: 11K

47. Student Project: Nearest Stars
 Student level: 8 (Energy Science)
 Public sources:
 Nearby Stars Observatory http://nbso.org
 List of Nearest Stars Wikipedia
 Stellar Database http://stellar-database.com
 Hubble Space Telescope http://hubblesite.org
 Extensive nudging full disclosure: my daughter’s project

48. Dataset size: 528
Sirius star system image from
Hubble Space Telescope

49. Re-envisioned in Tableau
 Same dataset recreated
on Tableau in ~1 hour
 https://goo.gl/tR0Wvl

51. Getting Public Data into the Classroom
WRAPPING UP

52. Getting public data into the classroom
 Get the students interested in something
important to them (not to you)
 Keep the barriers to entry low
 GapMinder, Google Sheets, Excel, Tableau
 Get yourself trained and prepared
 You don’t need to be an expert!
 Model it for them, then let them do it

53. Contact and links
 LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/shawnhandran